Page 60 of Marriage Most Scandalous
“He’s an illusion,” he replied. “Speaking of which, I’d as soon my father not know about our temporary ‘marriage.’ ”
Now that surprised a frown from her. “But that was the whole point of it.”
“We’re beyond that point. I’m in the door and, for the moment, not being asked to leave.”
She tsked at him and pointed out, “Everything for you has to be steeped in intrigue, when the plain and simple truth still works wonders.”
“Not all the time it doesn’t, and when it doesn’t, you’re left with dead ends. Intrigue, as you put it, gives you more options. And I’d prefer the option of not being around when he finds out about it.”
“Why?”
“Because I find that I can’t lie to him. I thought I could, but I can’t.”
She blinked. “So you’ll tell him that we aren’t really married?” She bit her lip. “Well, I don’t suppose it needs to go any farther than him. I’m sure he’ll understand once he knows why we perpetrated the farce.”
He shook his head at her, warned, “You’d then have to explain to him all the reasons why you hate me and won’t have me, because mark my words, he’ll insist we put ‘truth’ to the word ‘married.’ ”
“Nonsense.”
“You don’t think so? Even if he didn’t have the moral fiber that would insist on that solution, consider this. He wants you in the family, Maggie. It would be the perfect excuse to see it happen.”
She was overcome with a myriad of emotions, and appallingly, one of them was a burst of excitement at the thought of having to marry Sebastian for real. She must be insane! All the intrigue, which was so against her nature, was getting to her. No other excuse for it.
“How do you hope to prevent him from hearing that we married, then? He’s not going to remain in his room much longer. Someone’s bound to mention it.”
“Not necessarily. Abigail and Denton won’t. I’ve spoken to them, as well as the servants. And according to my grandmother, Juliette rarely talks to him either. So that leaves you.”
She made a moue, then said stiffly, “I’m not going to instigate this forced marriage you are predicting, I assure you. I don’t agree it would come to that, but it certainly won’t be on my head. Now, must we discuss this here of all places? Or did you want to talk about the duel?”
“No.”
“Then why—?”
“Maggie, you talk too much.”
She gritted her teeth in exasperation. “We could have had this discussion somewhere not so morbid. Why here?”
“Because it was the only place I could think of where I wouldn’t be tempted to toss up your skirt in the grass.”
Chapter 34
MARGARET COULDN’T SPEAK FOR A MOMENT. An image came into her mind, lying on soft grass, Sebastian beside her, leaning over her, tenderness in his eyes just before he...
The image shattered abruptly. She’d never seen tenderness in his eyes, at least not when he looked at her. At Abigail, yes, she’d seen it once, enough to know he was capable of tenderness. He wouldn’t have feigned that emotion, not for his grandmother, anyway.
She turned her back to him and told him quite primly, “I must insist that you refrain from saying things like that, Sebastian.”
“You can insist all you like.”
She gritted her teeth. “But it won’t do a bloody bit of good?”
“I always knew you were a smart girl.”
She drew in her breath sharply. Was the man actually teasing her? She glanced over her shoulder at him, but his expression hadn’t changed. The morbid setting was still governing that.
“We could have had this conversation at Edgewood,” she pointed out stiffly.
“At this time of day? There was no place with guaranteed privacy—other than your room. Are you inviting me back into your room, Maggie?”
